Dr Marco Macagnano is
Associate Director and Head of
Sustainability at Bentel
Associates International, Director
at the Green Building Council of
South Africa, and a member of
the Advisory Board to the
Department of Architecture at
the University of Pretoria. His
doctoral thesis is titled:
“An integrated systems-design
methodology and revised model
for sustainable development for
the built environment in the
Information Age”
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A building is an asset into which
tremendous time and money is allocated
in order that it fulfil an operational
mandate that is enriching to the quality of
life of its occupants and users, symbiotic
with its environment (urban and natural),
and financially viable to its owner.
The question is: how do we do this?
This requires a re-think of the goal,
and of the process. Firstly, the goal
of sustainable development is still a
relevant one. It forces us to consider the
long term implications of what we do
on a multi-criteria basis. However, the
triple bottom line is incomplete. Not only
are the criteria too broad for adequate
implementation and measurement,
these were considered in an era pre-
dating the Information Age. The most
notable revolution of our generation that
has shaped entire knowledge-based
economies and societies is, as yet,
under-represented in architectural and
sustainable design. For this reason, the
Smart City conversation has drifted away
from urban planning and architecture
towards the Internet of Things (IoT) retrofit
to augment and enhance the redundant
physical city. Architecture needs to
embrace the needs of knowledge-based
development as a critical criterion if
our buildings are to last for generations
that follow. Are our urban environments
enabling knowledge-sharing (between
users, between buildings, and between
users and buildings) to create responsive
and adaptable environments? If we begin
to ask this question we find ourselves
transitioning from think about buildings
as products, to buildings as systems. We
no longer ask ourselves if buildings are
functional, but if buildings are usable. And
by recognising that architecture is human-
centric we begin to query the significance
of an intervention on later generations.
We are therefore also primed to provide
our clients not only with physical assets,
but information assets that are participant
to the future’s Smart Cities.
Secondly, an evolution of architectural
process is required. As an industry that is
notoriously slow to adapt (after all, BIM is
already a decades-old technology) this is
truly the greatest challenge. Within this
evolution of process it becomes clear that
an integrated approach towards systems-
design is required. This achieves a number
of things: a framework for rigorous
testing and simulation (enabled through
computational design and Artificial
Intelligence), knowledge feedback loops
and, importantly, the integration of various
tools and ratings systems to interrogate
the architectural solution according to
multiple criteria.
Is sustainable development still
relevant? I think it is. However it could
be that our predisposition to simplify it
or even venture into the discovery of
alternatives resulted from the fact that we
haven’t taken the time to recognise it as a
concept that requires industry focus and
customisation. Ultimately, this remains in
the aim of realising architectural solutions
that meet the needs of future generations
within ecological constraints.
Sustainable Development in Architecture